This invention relates to the identification of users of communications systems and, more particularly, to identification of the party answering a voice over internet telephone (VoIP) telephone call.
In circuit switched telephony it is comparatively easy to identify a calling party""s terminal by mapping the physical, central office location of the telephone line serving the terminal to a directory number. Once the calling terminal""s directory number has been obtained, it may be forwarded to the called party, advantageously prior to answer or during a silent interval of ringing. In the prior art, voice over internet (VoIP) telephony which is transmitted over a packet switched network such as the Internet, software called xe2x80x9csoftphonexe2x80x9d software is typically employed that conforms to the protocols defined in Recommendation H.323 of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) entitled xe2x80x9cVisual Telephone Systems and Equipment for Local Area Networks which Provide a Non-guaranteed Quality of Servicexe2x80x9d. Neither circuit switched nor packet switched telephony, however, provides any means for identifying the party who answers the call. When the called telephone number is directed to a facility at which any of several individuals (e.g., family members or the employees of a small business) may answer a call it would be desirable to provide the caller with some indication of the identity of the person who actually answers the call. This would have several advantages. From the caller""s perspective, it is desirable to know, without asking, who the person is who answers the call. From the standpoint of a business, providing the caller the name of the person who answers the call may dispel some of the aura of xe2x80x9cfacelessxe2x80x9d communication that calls to some businesses seem to acquire and instead help the business to project an image of xe2x80x9cpersonal servicexe2x80x9d. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide the caller with the name of the person who actually answers the call. It would also be advantageous to allow the caller to leave a message for a particular person at a called facility, even when the caller has no knowledge before making the call who that person might be.
In accordance with the principles of the invention, the above problems are solved in an arrangement particularly adapted to VoIP calls, that provides Called Party Identification, i.e., which allows a called facility to provide the caller with information that identifies the person who answers the call without the need of the caller to ask and so that the answering individual may be distinguished from any other individual who may answer the call at the facility. According to one aspect of the invention, before an incoming call is answered, the called facility, if it receives caller-ID information, queries a database to determine whether (a) the caller is known and, if so, whether there are particular call handling instructions stored for this caller; and (b) whether the called facility is classified as blocked from participating in called party identification service. If the database response indicates that the called facility participates in called party identification service, the data base sends to the caller, before the call is answered, a list of persons at the called facility who are authorized to answer the call and, advantageously, some indication of what that persons area of responsibility may be. When one of the authorized persons answers the call a brief selection message is transmitted to the caller identifying which of the authorized persons is answering the call. For example, the person answering the call may simply press a button at his telephone corresponding to his name or, in an alternative embodiment, a speech sample from the answering person is analyzed and the selection message is sent based on the speech analysis. In the event that the call is not answered, the caller may, after reviewing the area of responsibility information on the list, select the most appropriate persons on the list to receive a detailed message.